Teach Me to Solo : The Nuts and Bolts of Law Practice

This book is an asset to any new or practicing solo or small law firm. It's got everything from what type of phone to buy, to how to set up your files, and what type of font to choose for letterhead and business cards. Whether you've worked in a large firm or it's your first time out--this book will act as your paralegal and assistant all rolled into one. I don't know how I'd get started without it! You must buy it!

The legal profession gives rise to so many stereotypes among law students, law students-to-be and even practitioners. On the one hand, the largest law firms offer astronomic salaries to top graduates of top law schools which bear no resemblance to legal life on this planet pre-1999. On the other hand, a visit to the message boards...indicates that a goodly number of folks who did not attend a top law school and did not get top grades have a rough time out there when they graduate without a ready job and without the knowledge of what to do next. Even those of us who did well in school and got that great job out of school worked with lawyers who stumbled in mid-career and never could get back up and running again. Sometimes it seems from the media and the message boards that everything in law is either spectacular success or wrenching failure. This has always been a phenomenon of law, as long as the modern legal system has existed. The difference is that today, the extremes seem more pronounced, as the legal rich get richer, and those with lesser credentials fear that they will only get poorer.Hal Davis' book, Teach Me to Solo, is a welcome antidote to the cancer of doom and gloom which besets some new lawyers whose law school careers bespeak student debt and a difficulty finding a job rather than 150K offers and the BIGLAW partnership track. Davis advocates doing the old-fashioned thing--setting up an office and practicing law. Davis is well-qualified to write about this topic--he's an MBA who went back to law school mid-career, and promised himself he'd own his own business once he graduated. This is not one of those "career counsellor" books in which someone with a JD working in a law school placement office tells the reader what the reader "ought to do" (but which the author did not do). Instead, this is a hands-on,nuts and bolts "set up your office, get your computers, set up phone and fax, do some low cost marketing" hands-on guide from somebody who did exactly what he preaches. Although Davis is teaching the reader how to become an old-fashioned solo practitioner, his focus is on using technology and common sense to run your practice on a shoestring.Jay Foonberg and Gerald Singer have written fine books on starting a solo practice. Davis' book is much less about the theory of getting business and much more about its subtitle, "the nuts and bolts of law practice". Some inexperienced (and, sadly, some highly experienced but layoff-prone) lawyers imagine that solo practice is not attainable on the ground of expense and difficulties getting business. Davis helps show the lawyer how to solve the expense end of things nicely, and gives some good idea on getting business.Some folks think that the great unrevealed secret of law school is that bottom grads of bottom law schools don't get top jobs. A much more important "unrevealed secret" is that middle class America has a great deal of need for services for consumer and small busines

Very practical advice for those who have been practicing law for a large firm and now want to set up their own practice. Helpful tips on where to locate your practice, office sharing techniques, and building a clientele. The chapter on image is especially useful. This book is the perfect complement to Jay Foomberg's "How to Start & Build a Law Practice" since it is geared more towards sole practictioners.Highly Recommended.

Mr. Davis clearly has a practical, down-to-earth understanding of the problems faced by the lawyer starting a solo career. This book saved me hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in mistakes I would have made! The book is not scholarly: just straightforward, practical advice. I'd recommend it to anyone!

"Teach Me To Solo" is a great book for anyone starting out in business. Beginning with general comments on the financial planning needed for setting up a new Law office, the book works through all the facets of creating a Law business. Mr. Davis provides "Real World" examples and straightforward advise on not only WHAT do, but HOW to do each action that he defines. The book deals with the early and pleasant aspects of getting started and making contacts. It also deals with hard issues like difficult customers and how to decline to do certain non-profitable work. Mr. Davis DIRECTLY and PLAINLY ADDRESSES THE TOUGH ISSUES dealing with office location, office management, services and the selection and maintenance of equipment. Mr. Davis even addresses "exit strategies" and plans for retirement from business.This is a great reference book for those starting a business. Alan Johnson Jade Associates [email protected]